20.2.12

Endings and Beginnings

This blog has been a constant companion over the last 6 years. It originally was started to capture my attempts to find a project in Germany so I could pursue both my career and a relationship, and if successful, to follow my experiences as an expat and in an intercultural relationship.

In the meantime, life happened, and both the relationship and my career as a consultant are well behind me. Meanwhile I have found the blog has grown rather stale. While I still enjoy writing and updating from time to time, the topic of being an expat seems a bit 'been there, done that'. My most recent posts seem more like a dry how-to have a baby and survive the bureaucracy of Germany than anything insightful, humorous or even interesting.

I am increasingly aware of the drumbeat of time and in just a matter of weeks I will return to work and have very limited free time, making it more unlikely that I will rejuvenate this blog. And really, who wants to hear about how busy I am all the time?

So I have started the process of closing down this blog. I am working on publishing a copy of this blog in book format, something I wanted to try a couple of years ago but ran into some technical issues and put it on hold. Hopefully it will be off to the publisher before I head back to work and will be a little keepsake of my years here to this point.

A big thank you if you read or have at some point read this blog. I have always been a terrible two-way communicator on this blog but it always was nice to read comments and advice left behind by readers.

There have been many people that I have connected to via this blog and back through their own blogs. I noticed many of my favorites have also slowed down considerably or stopped writing altogether but I still think of you as a virtual community who I learned from and who I shared a special experience with. So please don't be shy if you would like to be in touch. I can be contacted at dcsoxgirl at hotmail dot com and also have a well-used facebook account, which I can link you to if you contact me by email.

Finally, I mentioned in the post title 'beginnings'. I still am naively optimistic that I will have a little time for a fun and creative outlet of my own after I go back to work. With the encouragement of the Saffa and friends and family, I want to dig deeper into my photography hobby, which has been an ever growing passion over the last years. The Saffa and I planted a little seed this weekend and started the development of a website where I can showcase some of my current and future favorite photos, do some light blogging about photography and perhaps lay the groundwork for my pipe dream to eventually do some professional photography or occasional freelancing. I'm a brutal realist, but hey, a girl can dream!!

Some Food Photography Fun in the Future!

So more or less, this is the end of Jeweled Concrete, the expat blog. If somehow the photography website does ever get legs, I will update here to share it.

As the Germans say upon farewell (and I have always though was lovely), 'Mann sieht sich zweimal im Leben.' / 'You always meet twice in life'.